Portrait of Jenny Karezi

Jenny Karezi

Acting

Biography

Tzeni Karezi (Greek: Τζένη Καρέζη; 12 January 1932 – 26 July 1992) also known as Jenny Karezi, was a Greek film and stage actress. Evgenia Karpouzi was born in Athens, Greece, to a mathematician father and high school teacher mother. In 1951 she was accepted at the Greek National Theater,  where she studied in the Drama School. The playwright Angelos Terzakis and the director Dimitris Rontiris were among her teachers. Upon graduation, in 1954, she was immediately thrust into starring roles in the theatre, playing alongside actors such as Alexis Minotis and Katina Paxinou. Her stage debut was in the Marika Kotopouli theatre in the French comedy, La belle Heléne, with Melina Mercouri and Vasilis Diamantopoulos. In 1955, Karezi made her cinema debut in the Alekos Sakellarios' comedy, Laterna, ftoheia kai filotimo in 1955, a massive success just like its sequel, Laterna, ftoheia kai garyfallo in 1957. For the soundtrack of the 1959 film To nisi ton genneon she recorded a song by future Academy Award-winner Manos Hadjidakis, "Min ton rotas ton ourano" ("Do not ask the sky"). Her career flourished in the 1960s, when she headed her own theater troupe in 1961 and starred in some of the most classic movies of the Greek cinema, like Lola (1964), Mia trelli ... trelli oikogeneia (1965), Tzeni-Tzeni (1966), and Kontserto gia polyvola (1967). Her greatest film success was Ta kokkina fanaria (The Red Lanterns; 1963), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Her last film appearance was in Aristophanes' Lysistrata (1972). Over the following decade, she continued to produce and star in such stage classics as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Medea and Electra. She appeared for the last time in theatre in 1990 in Loula Anagnostaki's play, Diamonds and the blues; suffering from terminal breast cancer, she was in great pain and had to leave the show.

Born: January 1, 1932

Place of Birth: Athens - Greece

Known For

Filmography

2021
1821 at the Cinema

as (archive footage)

1990
Μαύρη χρυσαλλίδα

as Ναταλία φον Κράουζε

1972
Lysistrata

as Lysistrati

1972
Erotic Symphony

as Eirini / Betty Stergiou

1971
Manto Mavrogenous

as Manto Mavrogenous

1970
A Woman in the Resistance

as Άννα Κολέτη

1968
A Knight for Vasoula

as Vasoula Liontou

1968
Love and Blood

as Foni Yeraka

1966
Jenny Jenny

as Jenny Skoutari

1964
Miss Manager

as Lila Vasileiou

1964
1964
Lola

as Λόλα

1963
The Red Lanterns

as Eleni Niculescu

1962
Runaway Bride

as Kaiti Alexopoulou

1962
1961
Who Is Margarita?

as Margarita Kondostavrou

1960
The Young Lady's Fool

as Julia Karali

1960
Date in Corfu

as Diana Laniti / Mirka

1960
Christina

as Hristina

1958
1957
1957
1957
Trouble for Fathers

as Μπίλλυ Μαυρογιάννη

1955